New to this site...newly diagnosed cat

Hello everyone, my name is Stephanie and my 15 year old cat Clepatra (Cleo) was recently diagnosed with diabetes. The vet put her on perscription dry food and I found out the hard way that wasn't enough for her. The last two days she has had problems with urinating, drinking a lot of water and sometimes not making it to the litter box.
We took her to the vet and saw someone other than my regular vet yesterday. We will speak to my regular vet Friday and in the meantime I'm kinda figuring out how frequently and how much she needs to eat. She seems much better today, but I am now in search of as much information as I can find about the disease and how to help my girl lead as happy a life as she can.
We have been mixing canned food into the dry perscription food with a little water and that seems to do the trick for now. We are planning on getting the pescription canned food as well and I am now reading up on food and insulin and testing and all that goes with having a diabetic cat. The vet also wants to bring her in for the day and chart her levels to see if she needs to be on insulin.
In the process I'm scared and angry and nervous and exhausted because I'm not sleeping.
I adopted Cleo when she was a year old. That was 14 years ago and I love her with all my heart. We have five other cats and two large dogs...and Cleo is the boss of them all, even when she isn't feeling well.
I don't realy have a question per say, I just wanted to introduce myself and my girl. If anyone has any suggestions about feeding schedules or food that has worked for them or anything else that I should know off the bat I would appreciate it.
I work full time and am a full time student, so I don't have a lot of free time to surf the internet, so any help from those who have been through it already would be so appreciated!

 

Hi Stephanie and welcome to you and Cleo. I'm going to give you my standard welcome message that I hope you find helpful.

this forum is a great place to gain knowledge and really learn how to manage feline diabetes. By doing just a few things each day (that really won't take up much of your time at all), you won't need to worry about losing your precious cat, not where feline diabetes is concerned.

There are three key factors to managing diabetes: food/nutrition, home testing and insulin

1) Feline Nutrition: Now, as far as diet - definitely dump the dry food (if you are feeding any) and if the vet recommends purchasing prescription food like DM just say "no thank you". ALL cats, and especially those with diabetes, do best on a species appropriate diet that is high in protein and low in carbs. Dry food DOES NOT fit that bill and DM food, even canned, just really isn't that great as far as quality. Most here on FDMB feed low carb/high protein canned, raw bought from a pet store or they make there own.

Here great links, one is to a food chart put together by one of our board members that breaks down the carb % and protein % of most of the commercial brand foods. You want to keep the carb % below 10% and around 7% is great. The other link is to a site by a vet "Dr. Lisa DVM" ... who also posts on this board from time to time ... there is in-depth info. there about many things, including nutrition and how to make raw food.
Nutrition/food info

The good thing with feeding your diabetic cat this way, is that it is ALSO good for any non-diabetic cat too. All your cats can safely eat the same food without worry and it may save you some costs and headaches of having to do separate feedings and keeping track of what they are eating.


2. Home testing: It is impossible to convey the value of testing your cat's BG (blood glucose) level at home. Some vets will "suggest" this, but most won't even mention it. They will send you home with insulin and an amount to shoot and maybe some instructions about hypoglycemia (blood sugar dropping to a dangerously low level).

Well, the thing is, human diabetics don't EVER give themselves insulin without checking there BG to make sure it is safe to do so, so why shouldn't it be the same for our kitties. Here on FDMB it is. You will notice that the vast majority of people here test their cat's BG at least 2x/day (before giving each shot to make sure the level is safe enough) and periodically at other times to see how the cat is responding to the current dose. We use a human glucometer, test strips and lancets - which are all very readily available and easy to use.

Our kitties get lots of love and treats for "putting up" with this and most of them actually come out to be tested on their own 'cause they want those treats . Here is a collection of great links that "Carolyn and Spot" pulled together about hometesting. See what you think ... it truly is the best way to not only keep Your cat safe but also really get a handle on this disease and help him to live a healthy life with FD (feline diabetes).

Home testing Links

3. Insulin: There are several types of insulin available. Many people, myself included use Lantus or Levimer both of which are great insulins. They are gentle insulin and given twice (BID) per day in 12 hour increments. Or you could also choose PZI or the new version called Prozinc.

Please read up on the insulins available, here is a link to the Insulin Support Groups:

Insulin Support Groups

However, one caveat and again this shows how these three things are inter-related:

If you are feeding dry food or even a high carb food, BEFORE removing these foods, please make sure of your insulin dose as it will most likely need to be reduced, so as to avoid a possible hypoglycemic situation due to the removal of the dry/high carb foods that will lower the BG’s and reduce the amount of insulin required. Again, another reason why home testing is important.

I know this all seems like a lot, and that's because it is ... there is a learning curve here. But as long as you are determined and keep at it, you will have it down before you know it and you'll be seeing the results in Your cat' overall health and happiness. Ask all the questions you can think of - that's why we are here!

Also, if you haven't done it yet, take the time and fill out your profile. It will help when others come on and read this. Also, let us know where you live - city/state as there are probably people in your area who can provide on the ground support and help you to learn home testing, etc.

 

Hi Stephanie and Cleo - welcome to the gang. I'm so sorry you're here and i mean that in the nicest way possible.

First thing first - i know right now you're feeling scared and overwhelmed. I know because that's how i was feeling when i showed up here with my baby Molly who is diabetic.

Second - please be proud of yourself for finding this site, figuring out how to post on it (not always easy) and introducing yourself.

I promise you this (and i know you don't know me, you're going to have to trust me here) but diabetes is a manageable disease and Cleo can maintain her quality of life (Molly is sitting on my lap purring as i type this if that's any indicator and she's been diabetic for the past 6 years).

Please, learn to hometest. I know it's not easy initially but i swear, it becomes second nature. I know you work and go to school, hometesting will give you the control so you won't need to rely so heavily on the vet. Me and my husband work like crazy but we take the 2 minutes it takes to hometest so we can manage her diabetes easily (and yes, you will be able to as well in 2 minutes).

Im' attaching some info. please read through it and ask us lots of questions. I'm still asking questions.


http://binkyspage.tripod.com/faq.html

 

Stephanie, if you haven't started insulin, now is the time to dump all dry, switch to canned (majority of us use Fancy Feast or Friskies) and you just might be lucky enough to end up with a diet controlled diabetic. If that doesn't happen, switching to canned and starting Cleo on Lanus gives you a good chance of getting her into remission quickly. Hometesting is the most important thing you can do for Cleo. Bottom line, even if she needs insulin for the rest of her life, it really is no biggie. You will learn it all, slowly but surely, and it will become second nature to you in no time. Please let us know how Cleo does with her checkup on Friday and welcome........someone is always here 24/7 from all over the world.

 

Hi Stephanie. I sounded much worse than you do when I arrived here. I was overwhelmed, scared to death and in a panic. The folks here helped me to see that this is all doable. Lots to learn, but it comes more quickly than you think. Take a deep breath and know that you can help Cleo and that you will have a great deal of support here. Many folks here have varying schedules and work, go to school etc..., so there are a lot of people who can make suggestions on how to work this out.

You've gotten good suggestions above. I agree that if Cleo is not yet on insulin, look at the food chart which was in one of the posts and consider switching to the low carb wet foods. That switch made a world of difference with my Calliope. She was on insulin, but she went off pretty quickly, and there's a higher percentage of kitties who are able to avoid insulin or get off of it when things are changed when the kitty is first diagnosed, so this is all well worth a try.

Hometesting is very important and it's much easier than it sounds. This is coming from someone whose cat NEVER cooperated with testing, unlike most of the other cats here who will do almost anything for a treat before or after testing. By the way, ditch any dry treats you have. I would highly recommend Halo Liv a Little treats. Calliope loved them. I had to order them on the internet because no pet stores in my area carry them. Shop for prices those. I think the place I usually buy from is Wholesale Supplement Store.

Welcome to our group even though you didn't want to join. It's going to be okay. If I could be okay, you can be okay. I was a basket case.

 

About to head to bed so just dropping a quick note.. mostly to reiterate what others have said already:

Welcome and sorry for the diagnosis.

Most certainly ditch the dry.. doing this asap is one of the best things you can do for your diabetic cat.. Feed low carb wet (food link list mentioned above I believe).. and it's generally easiest on a diabetic cat if you can feed many small meals (less work for the pancreas to do at one time).

Learn to home test. It can be tough at first.. but the information is extremely valuable and life saving (testing at the vet is often elevated by stress, only captures a brief picture of your cats blood sugar levels and it's usually a lot cheaper to test at home).

Welcome again . It is overwhelming.. but it really does get a lot easier and simpler as time goes by.

 

Hello everyone,
Thank you for the welcome messages and all the information. Cleo is scheduled for testing for insulin on Tuesday. We ditched the dry food as of yesterday alltogether. I still have to check on the best canned food to feed her, I know some suggestions were made here. Everything happens at once...work is insane because the other lady in my position was let go and I've been putting in a lot of hours at work.
In the mean time, Cleo does seem to be doing better with the canned food even just the stuff the vet reccomended. I make sure she gets a little bit of food several times a day and that seems to help a great deal. I have the next three days off, so hopefully I can dedicate a lot of that time to her and researching what to do from here on out.
At the very least, Cleo is more than happy to switch over to the canned food.
Does cutting out dry food altogether create dental issues? I've been really lucky with her. She is 15 years old and always had beautiful teeth.
Also...talking to people at work I have had several people tell me that they had a diabetic cat and did insulin shots only to have the cat diagnosed with a tumor. Is this a side effect of the insulin or just a coincidence? My plan was to go ahead with the insulin test and get her started on shots, but she has a history of cancer and if this is a side effect I will change my plans.
Thank you again for your time and support...thank goodness I found my way here or I would be a LOT more panicked than I am!

 

Dental issues can happen with all dry, all canned, or combo of both. All canned is the best for diabetics. As for your co-workers and their diabetic cats and tumors.......sometimes diabetes is a secondary disease, not the primary, but it shows up first. So you treat the diabetes and then shortly thereafter you find out about a tumor. We do not know the future so we treat the diabetes because left untreated your Cleo will slowly starve to death. IMHO diabetes does not cause a cancer......cancer and CRF are two of the main causes of death in cats. You could probably add undiagnosed heart problems also. Even young cats can get cancer or heart trouble. Patches, diabetic 4 years back in '90, passed from CRF at 16. Baby, diagnosed at 13, passed from heart at 18 1/2 after 5 1/2 years on insulin. Hope is going on 8 years diabetic but has been in remission for the last 3 years since being diagnosed with Restrictive Cardiomyopathy. No one can tell me if the heart problem put her into remission after needing insulin for 4 1/2 years. Mishka is still get her shots 6 /12 years later. Please don't hesitate to treat the diabetes because you think it may cause cancer. Also, please post back after vet visit and let us know what insulin and dose vet wants to start her on. Now is the time to start hometesting......even before starting the insulin. That will give you her numbers at home without vet stress raising them up. You may also be one of the lucky ones where a change to all canned saved the day.

 

Thanks for the information...and the success stories! I didn't mean I wasn't going to treat the diabetes, only that I wanted to be on the look out for anything else that could crop up. Cleo had a cancerous tumor in her paw six years ago and after surgery we haven't had any relapses...thank goodness. Knowing that she has had issues in the past and then all of a sudden hearing so many people talking about diabetes and cancer just put me on alert.
I am still a little overwhelmed about the hundreds of options for wet food and what to feed her. She has lost so much weight I want to make sure that whatever she gets will help her get back some body mass. Her appetite has improved since I took her off the dry food.
A question about the home testing...Is it like human tests where you have to take blood or did I read somewhere that there are tests that can check the urine? I'm sure the blood tests are more accurate...I'm not so sure I can stand doing the blood testing, although my boyfriend would probably do it.
Ok...well off to do more reading.
I read here that a lot of the people on the site feed Fancy Feast. I don't see the foods on the no gluten list on the canned food table to see what their Protein levels are. Can anyone reccomend a few different varieties that I can start with while I'm figuring this whole thing out?
Thanks for everyone's help...I'm so happy to have found a place where I can get information and personal answers. It has helped so much already!

 

It's always good to know thy cat and be aware of issues and things to look for.

Yes, it can be overwhelming all the food choices availble. The goal is to find a brand and flavors she likes and stick with those. Even limiting the options can be helpful if you have IBD or pancreatitis issues to deal with.

It really isn't that hard to test. Unlike humans pricking the finger, with cats we prick the ear to get blood and depending on the meter you use, you only need a little bit of blood.

Here is a link about home testing: http://www.felinediabetes.com/phorum5/r ... ?8,1817358

Sure - you want to get the "classic" varieties - which include - beef feast, beef & liver feast, chicken feast, turkey & giblets feast, etc.

The grilled and marinated flavors are good to put in your hypo tool kit to use as needed (typically feeding the gravy only or spooning the gravy on top of the "classic" low carb flavors).

 

Hello and sorry for the diagnosis - I wanted to add my 2cents about foods. I switched to wellness chicken (I buy it by the case [big can] online from petco.com) and all of my cats love it. After reading a lot here, I learned to add a little water to give kitties even more hydration.

There is much to learn here. I'm glad to see you ditched the dry food - that was one of my first lessons. I bought all of my testing supplies from wal-mart. I got the one touch ultra and the strips for it there.

All the best!
Roz & Oliver